Wednesday, 5 October 2011

Narnia Inspired Party

Today I am thrilled to welcome Joanne of Act One Parties to share her ideas for planning a Narnia party. Joanne is an expert at lifting the story from the page and turning it into an amazing party. By using the elements of stories Joanne creates adventures worthy of beautiful princesses and gallant knights or takes party guests on magical adventures as they join Wizard and Witch school just like Harry Potter when he started at Hogwarts.

For todays post Joanne has chosen her favourite book to take us on an adventure, but first we must step into the wardrobe....

My absolute favourite book ever is The Lion, The Witch and
the Wardrobe.I loved it as a child and
I have been fortunate enough to be able to revisit it for inspiration as an
adult, running drama sessions and parties based around the story.

Narnia is great for both a boy or a girl's birthday party
and can even work well as a Christmas party with Father Christmas playing a big
part in the story.It can also work well
for a variety of age groups. To set the mood turn the entrance door to your
party into a wardrobe by placing a dress rail behind the door with lots of
clothes hung on it for the children to push through to gain entry.To decorate the party room cut out large fir
tree shapes from green paper and you could even make alamp post out of cardboard tubes and a
lantern.You could also take inspiration
from the winter wonderland aspect of the story and decorate with artificial
snow and use white and pearlescent fabric to drape the tea table.There are also some lovely Narnia printables
and posters available on Etsy which would help set the scene and could be used
as inspiration for invites, cake toppers etc.

There are also many traditional party games that can be
adapted to the Narnia theme.As the
White Witch uses wolves to capture humans, What's The Time Mr Wolf? is an
obvious choice.You can also adapt the
classic Stuck in the Mud tag game to a Narnia theme.The taggers would be The White Witch and
Wolves and when you are tagged you become a statue as in the story.To be released other players pretend to be
Aslan and breathe on you to unfreeze you. Children love pretending to be
strange things so get them into groups and ask them to create their own
wardrobe out of their bodies.They can
then all step through and pretend to be in Narnia for the first time, feeling
the cold and the strangeness of a new land.The story itself appeals to a wide range of senses, so some sensory
games would work well too.Maybe a touch
game where either each child takes it in turn to wear a blindfold and guess
what an object is by feeling it or just putting objects in bags to feel through
– things like a fir cone, pineapple and coconut work well.

Target games would also be good to use the childrens special
powers.You could have a Susan archery
game with children's archery sets or even throwing bean bags at targets to test
their accuracy for their battle with Aslan and the White Witch.

For the party tea hot chocolate or chocolate milk could be
served along with turkish delight (although in my experience that is quite an
acquired taste!)But how about a
traditional English Tea that would have been popular in the time the book is
set, so things like finger sandwiches, mini cakes and scones.

The possibilities are rich and endless for a Narnia themed
party so have fun planning yours.

Thank you Joanne, these really are some fantastic ideas to create a Narnia party. My favourite has to be having a clothes rail at the door so guests can step into Narnia. So if you are lucky enough to live in Surrey, Hampshire or Berkshire I suggest you pop over to Joanne's website to learn more about Act One Parties and indulge your children and their guests with some fictional fun.

Also be sure to share your own Narnia parties here on the blog, just send an email with images and a few details and I will be intouch for more information if your party is to be featured.